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Romford Town Swimming Club

established 1900



RTSC Gala Reports

24th/25th November 2007 - Essex Junior/Senior Championships

Romford Town reach new heights

The Romford Town swimming team climbed to new heights this weekend as they exceeded expectations by winning the Hugh Joiner Trophy for the Top Club at this year’s Essex County Senior Championships. Having secured the runner up spot only last year, Towns young team went one better, producing some outstanding swims to snatch the Trophy from last year’s Champions from the Borough of Waltham Forest.

With junior titles up for grabs for the younger swimmers in these Senior events, 16 years old Roseanne Thompson in finishing with 2 silver medals and a gold in the Senior competition, made it a clean sweep of the Junior Breaststroke titles. In her first event, the 200 metres, she powered out over the opening 50 metres with Romford’s 15 years old Jessica Coles in the next lane, close on her shoulder. This is how it remained through to the finish with only 0.01secs separating them at the touch. Coles’ 3rd place finish gave her 2nd place in the junior section. Remarkably, Thompson was also involved in an even closer finish in the 50 metres event, as she and Southend’s 19 years old Alyson Moran produced a dead heat, both with a winning time of 36.09secs. In addition to her share of the Senior Trophy, this gave Thompson her second Junior victory. Her third came over 100 metres and, whilst the older Moran was again a little too strong for her over the longer distance, her 2nd place was the fastest by a Junior swimmer. She also had a top 6 finish over 100 metres IM. Team mate Coles notched up her second medal as 3rd placed junior in the 100 metres breaststroke and she too added points with a top 6 finish and a PB over 400 metres IM.

16 years old Georgia Hunton Clarke was close to coming away with a clean sweep of the ladies Senior and Junior Backstroke titles, only to miss out on the 50 metres event by a misjudged finish. Her weekend had started with a six second winning margin over 200 metres, having controlled the race from the start. After the setback of the 50 metres swim, she picked herself up to produce another dominant display in the 100 metres event, again taking both the Senior and Junior crowns. Hunton Clarke also added to her junior achievements with a 5th place over 200 metres freestyle and 6th over 100 metres butterfly.

Another Romford swimmer who seems to relish the bigger occasion is 16 years old Sam Ward. He set a blistering pace over the first half of his 100 metres butterfly swim, opening up a commanding lead and whilst recent fitness problems saw him pegged back over the closing stages, he had done enough to hold out for victory. Team mate Tom Ingram joined him in the final, finishing 5th. Ward was unable to replicate this over the 200 metres distance however and although he had again set the early pace he was this time surpassed by the 150 metres mark. Despite a final late burst, he had to settle for 2nd spot. He was later deprived of the probability of another victory in the 50 metres event as he and a number of other Romford swimmers missed Sundays afternoon’s races to compete in a school relay event in Ipswich.

16 years old Grant Chandler has been a little out of sorts of late on his butterfly swims and his weekend had started with disappointment over the 100 metres, as that run continued with a 6th place in the Juniors. Undeterred, he showed his all round ability in the 100 metres IM, as he bounced back with a silver medal in the junior competition. His season was well and truly back on track by the end of the weekend as he returned to his fighting best only to narrowly miss out on the Senior 200 metres IM title, though the runner up spot was good enough for the Junior Crown. Within minutes he was back in the pool to take 5th place in the 50 metres butterfly final where only 0.27secs separated the top 5 swimmers.

Ahead of Chandler and only 0.03 shy of another Senior win for Town was 15 years old Christopher Stamp who’s speed at the turn and sharp finish pulled him through into 2nd place and his first Junior gold medal.

18 years old Natalie Ward, who had much of last season’s training disrupted by illness was again under the weather coming into these Championships. Whilst below par, she stuck to her events programme and continued to clock up points towards Romfords winning total. After a strong butterfly and backstroke she had to settle for 3rd place in the Ladies 100metres IM and despite a gritty 200 metres butterfly swim she was again edged into 3rd place. There were further top 6 places for her with 4th in the 50 metres backstroke, 4th in the 100 metres butterfly and 5th over 100 metres backstroke.

By contrast, 16 years old Jamie Harrington is clearly benefiting from a spell of uninterrupted training as he set PB’s on all of his weekends performances. While his best result was a 3rd place from his 200 metres IM his better swims came from his freestyle events and, although he was just outside of the medal s on each occasion, he was consoled by the big improvements to his race times over each of the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres distances.

The youngest contributor to the Romford points tally was 14 years old Kelsey Richards, who like Harrington is already reaping the rewards of this seasons training with PB’s and Senior top 6 places from her main 200 metres butterfly and 400 metres IM events. She was also 6th fastest junior over 400 metres freestyle. Another 14 year old who continues to improve with each outing is James Davis and his gutsy 400 metres IM swim brought him a senior 6th place and a junior 5th.

A strong 200 metres freestyle from 15 years old Nicole Raymond saw her narrowly miss a junior medal finishing in 4th place, 5th in the senior rankings. 17 years old Christopher Wright also had a strong swim to finish 6th from his 400 freestyle swim and Tom Toolis recorded another backstroke PB to take 6th in the junior 100 metres event.

Well done to all that competed

Hugh Joiner Trophy - Final Points (Top 6 Clubs):

  1. Romford Town 221
  2. Borough of Waltham Forest 185
  3. Thurrock 180
  4. London Borough of Redbridge 173
  5. Killerwhales 112
  6. Southend 87